The Indwelling: The Beast Takes Possession
The Indwelling: The Beast takes Possession is the seventh book in the Left Behind series, written by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins and published in 2000. Plot Summary The story takes place within the space of three days following the assassination of Nicolae Carpathia. As people at the Global Gala flee in a panic and the Global Community delivers the body of the Potentate to New Babylon for an autopsy to determine what caused his death, Rayford Steele flees to Greece, feeling guilty and wondering if he had been the one who was chosen to assassinate Carpathia. Buck Williams remains in Jerusalem to try finding Chaim Rosenzweig, who mysteriously disappears following the assassination. Upon entering the elderly Jew's house, Buck discovers that somebody has murdered Chaim's staff, including Jacov's wife Hannelore, making it all the more important for Buck to find Chaim. Leah Rose meets up with Ming Toy, a believer secretly working for the Global Community at Buffer, who informs her that Hattie Durham has been released and is being used as bait by the Global Community to track down the Tribulation Force safe house. However, Hattie goes AWOL and heads off in an unknown direction. Buck eventually finds Chaim and hides out in a hotel, where he discovers that the former Israeli scientist has used the blade that he developed to kill Nicolae by slicing it through his head, faking his ill condition so he could be near the Potentate for that moment. Indeed, as the New Babylon medics perform the autopsy, they discover the very same blade lodged in Carpathia's skull. In preparation for the Potentate's memorial service, Guy Blod has the Potentate's body cast for the giant-size image of Carpathia that would appear in the palace courtyard, complete with a furnace built inside the base of the statue that would be fueled by onion-skin paper found in Bibles. At the safe house near Chicago, Tsion Ben-Judah has some out-of-body experiences of being taken into heaven, where he sees in vivid detail Satan as the dragon with his angels fighting against Michael the archangel with God's angels, attempting to take the throne of God but unable to do so. He also sees the woman clothed with the sun, mentioned in Revelation chapter 12, giving birth to a Manchild that is taken to the throne of God, and then fleeing into the wilderness. Tsion realizes from these experiences that Satan is now cast down to the earth to wage war against the saints, and that the Jews in Israel will soon have to flee the coming wrath of the Antichrist. In Greece, underground pastor Demetrius Demeter helps Rayford Steele come to terms with his anger and guilt while also helping him escape back to the United States. T comes to the rescue of Buck and Chaim, delivering them as far as Greece in a plane without any landing wheels. Buck convinces his old friend that he needs Jesus as his Lord and Savior, and so Chaim becomes a believer just before the plane crashes on the runway, killing T. Back in the States, the Tribulation Force safe house is now compromised, and David Hassid helps the team find a new safe house in the abandoned but still functional Strong Building within the heart of devastated Chicago, where they escape to just in the nick of time. Rayford returns to the States to help the team escape with the assistance of Albie, who just became a believer at that point. On the day of the funeral for Nicolae Carpathia, as millions are gathered around the palace in New Babylon to see the Potentate's body in a sealed bulletproof glass casket, Leon Fortunato as the acting Potentate calls down fire upon three subpotentates who were found to be disloyal to the Global Community. Also the giant image of Carpathia comes to life in the midst of black billowing smoke and speaks, demanding the people to worship him as God. Lightning strikes at the command of Leon, killing those who would not worship the giant image. As the crowd continues to watch, Nicolae rips open the casket and comes back to life, looking as if he had never been stabbed in the skull. During all the commotion, David Hassid realizes that his fiancee Annie Christopher is missing and goes to find her. As the millions in New Babylon flock toward Carpathia to worship him, he makes his proclamation to those who would dare call him Antichrist that, if they thought the past 3 1/2 years were what they thought was the Tribulation, then they should be ready for the Great Tribulation. Characters In The Indwelling * Rayford Steele, former pilot for Pan-Continental * Buck Williams, former news reporter for Global Weekly * Chloe Williams, the wife of Buck Williams and head of the Co-op * Kenny Bruce Williams, son of Buck and Chloe Williams * Hattie Durham, former flight attendant and personal assistant to Nicolae Carpathia * Chaim Rosenzweig, former Israeli scientist * Tsion Ben-Judah, rabbinical scholar and cyber-pastor * Mac McCullum, pilot to Nicolae Carpathia * Abdullah Smith, pilot to Nicolae Carpathia * Albie, former black market dealer * David Hassid, Director of Purchasing in New Babylon * Annie Christopher, Phoenix 216 cargo chief * Leah Rose, former hospital nurse * Ming Toy, Global Community employee working at Buffer * Lukas Miklos, underground believer in Greece * Demetrius Demeter, underground pastor in Greece * T, owner of an airstrip used by the Tribulation Force * Nicolae Carpathia, the Antichrist * Leon Fortunato, the False Prophet, acting as Supreme Potentate during Carpathia's death * Viv Ivins, a Global Community employee with as-yet-unrevealed connections Trivia * This is the seventh book in the series. Deaths * Hannelore * Tyrola Mark Delanty Category:Books